Thirty Days And Around The World
My life has fallen into a few stages.
As a child, I lived in Box Hill when it was a village. I then became pastor to the slums of inner Melbourne for eight years. I was then a country parson and a teacher at a one teacher bush school out at Jackson Creek in Western Victoria and then for thirteen years, I was a suburban minister in one of Australia’s largest suburban ministries.
And now, for more than 20 years, I’ve been Superintendent in Sydney of Wesley Mission, Australia’s largest church ministry.
I’ve told you stories of people in each of these places.
Tonight I want you to come with me into the heart of the city.
In my early days at Wesley Mission I set a cracking pace which was to continue throughout the rest of my time as Superintendent to the city. Most people realise that I preach many times a week at services on radio and television and understand that with a very large staff and many hospitals, retirement villages, aged care homes, employment services, childcare facilities, disability services and the like that I lead a very busy life. But few people realise the diversity of the work. In those days, I had established a pattern of speaking publicly about 400 times a year and as I always type and prepare my work myself, this involved a great deal of generation of new ideas and thoughts and the preparation of many sermons.
In the early 1980’s, I didn’t have the advantage of a computer and typed everything on an electronic typewriter. I also had a small electronic typewriter and as I was flying some time or other every week, I used to take this small electronic battery powered typewriter on the plane with me and type articles, addresses and sermons as I flew. It was a rarity in those days and hostesses took a great interest in the work that I was doing on this small electronic typewriter. During July 1985, I was constantly on the move and in 30 days travelled and spoke quite extensively. The first 16 days involved a trip to the United States of America for the insurance industry’s Million Dollar Round Table. I coupled this visit with the launch of our new videos of Discovering Jesus across the United States with a significant number of nation-wide television programmes.
The trip to the United States of America for 16 days opened up more possibilities that we ever dreamed. The appointment of Linda Garrison and her Dallas office to represent us for the sale and videos and the promotion of our “Discovering Jesus” programs in the United States of America has already resulted in the sales of hundreds of sets of our video program. I appeared coast to coast in the “700 Club” which has the highest viewing audience of it’s kind. As a result of a number of meetings with television personnel, we are currently engaged in the sale of “Discovering Jesus” to a number of television networks throughout America and the weekly presentation of “Turn ‘Round Australia” as a regular feature.
Beverley joined with me on this trip and we visited the Crystal Cathedral, where I preached, and also at Melodyland nearby. I also preached at Central Church in Memphis at both services in a new building seating 5,000 persons. The services were crowded with about 5000 in each one. However, I found here something I have never experienced before or since. As I drove the hire car into the huge car parking lot and explained to an attendant who I was, I ran into the most incredible network of security men that I had ever found in any church. My car was hustled off around to the back of the huge building and Beverley and I were bundled out of the car and surrounded by a couple of beefy security men – rushed in through a back door. I was taken up winding back steps to the ministers’ vestry. The minister, Dr. Stephen Olford, a good friend of many years standing then explained to me that they had received a death threat for that day. Some mentally unbalanced person had informed the church that they intended to shoot the preacher during the sermon at one of the morning services and then shoot themselves in the act of suicide. Because the service was telecast nationally, the disturbed man thought he would gain a lot of national television coverage by shooting the preacher and myself. The police had assessed the security risk and Stephen apologised that it happened to be the day that I would be preaching. They decided that the church services should go ahead but with heavily armed security men around all of the isles within the church.
I was ushered into the pulpit through a small back door with two armed guards, one of whom sat in the pulpit watching the congregations all the time during the service, and the other sat just below the pulpit also watching the congregation. I was to preach and then immediately be hustled out from the pulpit without having the opportunity to meet anybody in the church. The second service was a repeat of the first. Needless to say I was not shot on either occasion.
I flew immediately to a large church called Bethesda in Fort Worth Texas with about 2500 people attending. This was totally uneventful in comparison with the Central Church in Memphis except for one thing. As Beverley and I were welcomed on a very high platform and I turned to go to the pulpit to preach and Beverley started to walk down the seven or eight steps to the front row where she was seated her high heel caught on the carpet of the top step and she fell tumbling down the steps. This service was also telecast and we have a copy of the video showing Beverley disappearing off the edge of the screen at a rate of knots as she took her headline fall. Fortunately, she wasn’t injured except for being covered with embarrassment.
Once more I lectured at the Graduate School at Wheaton College and delivered, as the first Australian to do so, the keynote address at the Million Dollar Round Table in San Francisco. There were 6,500 men present and the reception that I received was overwhelming. They were the people that paid the expenses incurred for this trip to the USA.
I learnt a very important lesson at this conference. The organisers were so particular about the presentations by the keynote speakers that we all had to rehearse the night before in an empty auditorium. The speaker immediately before me was the famous Dr. Tony Campolo, the sociologist who with rapid fire speech and amusing illustration is one of the most popular speakers in the world. I can assure you it is a very difficult thing to immediately follow one of the world’s greatest speakers with the expectation that your address – the final and keynote address – will top even his presentation. During the rehearsal, I was sitting in the empty convention centre looking at a huge ninety foot screen which featured the televised speaker. I realised that most people watch the screen rather than watch the man on the platform. The speaker, particularly for those who are a long way back, is a relatively small figure in a huge auditorium but on the ninety foot screen the face in close up showed every winkle and spot.
As Dr. Campolo was speaking in his rehearsal, I noticed that beads of sweat were glistening on the top of his bald head. Because the television cameras were situated in the balcony and were directed down at the speakers it was obvious that what you saw on the screen hugely magnified was the top of his head more than anything else. As he worked up a sweat, I was transfixed with the view of beads of perspiration running down his bald head. I realised instantly that what I had to do was not speak to the huge crown on the floor of the auditorium but to look at the cameras on the balcony. I immediately went while he was speaking, to the television producer and indicated that when I spoke I wanted the red light to come up on whichever camera was operating at that moment and I would speak to the cameras, not to the audience. I indicated that I would walk across the stage to my left and that I would expect the left hand cameras to pick me up and I would look directly to them and I would walk to the right hand stage and I would look directly into the right hand cameras when I was centre stage I would look directly into the centre cameras.
When the time came to my introduction I received an excellent introduction by the Governor of Texas who was quite flowery in his speech and gave me the opportunity to catch on to his commentary about Alan Bond winning the America’s cup. I made some very good humorous comments about our success in the America’s cup with the result that I had a standing ovation within one minute of commencing an address. What a start for a speaker – to follow Tony Campolo who had raised the atmosphere to fever pitch with a brilliant address and then to receive a standing ovation within the first minute.
The television technique worked, what people looked at was my face on the screen with my eyes looking directly at them. I received more applause letters of appreciation and praise from that one address than for any address in my life. You always communicate best with people when they can see your face and in particular, see your eyes looking directly at them.
God had opened up international markets throughout Europe, the United Kingdom, Japan and USA for our television ministries.
The Uniting Church in the Fremantle/Bicton area of Western Australia had arranged for Beverley and I to share in the leadership of a four-day evangelistic mission among people in the area where the America’s Cup will be defended. Already there are large numbers of visitors coming into this community and the church wanted to be geared up to meet the challenge of presenting the Gospel to so many visitors.
A few days later and I was off to conduct a series of short one-night rallies in Western Victoria. I spoke at school assemblies, at Minister’s Fraternals and with press and radio to several thousand people who regularly tune into our “Turn ‘Round Australia” program throughout Western Victoria. The rallies held in Ballarat, Ararat, Horsham and Hamilton were all packed beyond the capacity of the churches and halls in which they were situated. It was a thrill to see overflowing crowds and commitments to Christ at each occasion.
A very great honour was bestowed upon me in the invitation to deliver the Olivier Belguin Lectureship on behalf of Bible Society of Australia. Large crowds attended the lectureship which was presented at the Australian Academy of Science in Canberra, the Adelaide Central Mission in South Australia, the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne and in the Lyceum Theatre in Sydney. My address, “The Relevance of Scriptures in a Secular Society” has been printed by the Bible Society and I was busy autographing hundreds of copies. Everywhere the lecture presented it was good to meet with old friends and regular viewers of our television program.
Over the years these lectures have been presented by some of the most notable New Testament scholars and church leaders in the world including such notables as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Right Reverend the Lord Coggan; Rev. Dr. John Stott of London; Malcolm Muggeridge; the translator of the Good News Bible, Rev. Dr. Robert Bratcher; Professor E.M. Blaiklock from Auckland and the great Lutheran Hour Preacher, Dr. Oswald Hoffman of USA. I was very pleased to present an Australian perspective on the relevance of the Scriptures in our secular society.
Before a crowd of more than 2,000 people gathered in Garden City Christian Church, the President of the California Graduate School of Theology, Dr. Donald Ellis, D.E.d., conferred upon me an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.
Under the USA accreditation regulations, only one such honorary doctorate can be presented per annum and some distinguished church leaders have been chosen to receive similar degrees including Dr. J. Bailey Smith, President of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest denomination in the USA; Dr. W.A. Criswell, for 30 years Senior Pastor of the world’s largest Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas; and Dr. Paul Yonggi Cho, minister of the world’s largest congregation, the 350,000 member Central Church of Seoul, Korea.
Each of these men have been known for their contribution in leadership in the field of church growth. Since 1972, when my “How to Grow an Australian Church” was written I have lectured over 15,000 Australian church leaders in church growth principles and this doctorate was given in part for my contribution in this field as well as for 25 years of ministry covering two of the largest churches in the nation.
One hundred and thirty-two theological students were present who are commencing their second semester of theological training representing a number of denominations.
As I close my diary after looking at the events of that month of July 1985, I realise that I had travelled to: Gilgandra, Newcastle, Oberon, Newcastle, New York, Chicago, Memphis, Virginia Beach, Fort Worth, San Francisco, Camden, Narrabeen, Gordon, Townsville, Newcastle, Sydney, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Ballarat, Horsham, Ararat, Hamilton, Coolangatta, Ipswich. Many of those centres involved an evening address followed by a 7.00am breakfast flight back to Sydney.
One of the remarkable features of my travels is that in all of the hundreds of flights taken over the years to many parts of the world, my expenses have always been paid by other organizations and no airfare has ever been paid by Wesley Central Mission! Surely, this is an unequalled record.
During these visits, I also conducted a number of personal interviews with people wanting to help the Mission and as a result of a donation of $100,000 was received from a gentleman in Melbourne who has been my friend for years. Arrangements are now being made for the reception of the mission, of probably the largest financial bequest ever made to any church in Australia. This multimillion dollar bequest also came from personal friends in Victoria.
The final weekend of the month, I spent with Beverley at Mt. Gambier for the Churches of Christ conference, flying back on a light aircraft from Mt. Gambier to Melbourne through dreadful storms in order to get back to the Lyceum theatre to give my normal Sunday Night Live service. The next day Monday I drove to Oberon in the Blue Mountains to speak at an Ecumenical dinner. The reception was great, but the snow was so heavy that I didn’t arrive home until 2.00am the following morning. That day, I had to do a quick trip to Newcastle to open a new office for Ansvar Insurance Ltd and to make some television ads for Ansvar. From there, I flew to Dubbo to speak at a Minister’s forum and a seminar in the Gilgandra High School. From there, I flew back to Sydney to do some interviews with Colonel James Irwin, the astronaut, which we would use the next month in our “Turn ‘Round Australia” program. That night, I hosted a dinner for 200 people with Colonel James Irwin speaking at the Roundhouse at the University of New South Wales.
During that busy July 1985, I flew 63,000 kilometres in 30 days, made 34 different plane trips, travelled the equivalent distance of one and a half times around the world, and spoke to several million people on television and radio nationally throughout the United States and Australia. Possibly, no other minister of religion in Australia matched that rate of movement or outreach within a single month in our nation’s history.
The city of Sydney would grow to be one of the world’s great cities and Wesley Mission would grow to be one of the world’s great churches and I was privileged to spend each day in the heart of both.
